•Sunday Igboho
The pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, yesterday, defended the Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo, popularly called Sunday Igboho, over his actions to ensure that Yorubaland is freed from banditry and terrorism.
The group also called on those threatening the activist to keep the peace, insisting that Igboho was fighting banditry, not ethnicity, reports The PUNCH.
In a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Jare Ajayi, in Ibadan, Oyo State, Afenifere said Igboho was not threatening any particular ethnic group “but individuals and groups who engage in terror acts in Yorubaland.”
The organisation stressed that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the position taken by Igboho in his efforts to protect his people.
Recall that following the abductions of a woman and her children at Igbope in Oorelope Local Government Area of Oyo State, the Yoruba Nation agitator issued a two-hour ultimatum to kidnappers to release the victims or face some dire consequences.
On Sunday, a Fulani socio-cultural group, the Concerned Fulani People of Nigeria, in a statement by its Convener, Ibrahim Barkindo Chubado, called on President Bola Tinubu and the Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, to caution Igboho over what it described as inflammatory remarks directed at Fulani communities in Oyo.
Recall also that on Monday, Igboho, in a statement by his spokesperson, Olayomi Koiki, said his advocacy for effective security of the South-West was not targeted at any ethnic nationality but rather against criminal elements perpetrating abduction, killings, banditry, and other vices.
Igboho contended that Nigerians, irrespective of religious, political and ethnic divides, should collaborate with the government and relevant security agencies to rid the nation of criminality.
Afenifere, yesterday, threw its weight behind Igboho, saying that since he neither acted violently nor conducted himself unlawfully, calls for authorities to take action against him amounted to blackmail.
It said, “But some notable voices in the northern part of Nigeria, including Arewa Consultative Forum, Northern Elders Forum, Coalition of Northern Groups and Concerned Fulani People of Nigeria, condemned Sunday Igboho for the ultimatum and the strong words he had for unscrupulous Fulanis who engage in kidnapping and terror acts.
“They went as far as asking President Bola Tinubu and Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State to rein him in, i.e. rebuke him.
“Since he (Igboho) was not violent in his action nor conduct himself in a manner that violates the laws of the land, calling on the authorities to deal with him borders on blackmail and an attempt to call a dog a bad name with a view to having it hanged. We in Afenifere stand by Sunday Igboho.”
The organisation maintained that Yorubaland is one of the places that people of northern extraction found safe and conducive to dwell in, to the extent that many of them had adopted the place as their abode. They have been living in those places with the natives having no problem with them.
Afenifere said, “But the situation began to change from the moment some unscrupulous Fulani herders began to graze on the farmlands of the local people. This was to be compounded by the abduction and sacking of communities that began to occur in recent times.”
Ajayi added that those who engaged in illegal mining had also been fingered as possible sponsors of terrorism as they moved in to dig the ground for mineral resources as soon as they displaced the people living on those lands.
The Afenifere spokesman stated that since such banditry and terrorism had long been prevalent in the North, and because many of those apprehended were from the region, particularly Fulani, “that is why many believe that the perpetrators of these acts are from the North.”
He went further to say that top military officers had stated that those who were wreaking havoc in the South-West were remnants of terrorists they displaced from Sambisa Forest in the North-East.
The organisation insisted that Igboho was not directing his anger against the Fulanis as a group, but at those who are behind the dastardly acts of kidnapping people, collecting ransoms and killing their victims.”
The group then called on northern leaders to look inward by a way of blocking the source from which terrorists recruit members.
Such sources, according to Afenifere, included the millions of uneducated young people and those alienated from the welfare that the government ought to provide.
Ajayi used the opportunity to commend President Bola Tinubu for sending the executive bill on the establishment of state police to the National Assembly, just as he lauded the latter for passing the bill expeditiously.
While calling on the states’ Houses of Assembly to pass the bill as soon as it reaches them, Afenifere also urged governors to establish police services in their respective states once the law is enacted.
“They should recruit people without criminal tendencies, train and equip them properly and complement their efforts with needed technology.
“They should also be properly motivated in terms of remuneration and have life insurance for themselves,” Afenifere added.
